A FUGITIVE businessman redecorated a British Consulate office in France during his time on the run, it emerged yesterday.

Tobacco smuggler Clive Cross went on the run after he was questioned about his role in a plot to hide more than four million cigarettes in cargoes of plywood imported from Dubai.

During his time at large, Cross lived in France and even returned to the UK for family events, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The court heard that Cross was paid to decorate the British Consulate in Bordeaux, France, having passed security checks.

He was arrested when he tried to enter the UK on a flight from Bordeaux in June last year, and has since admitted evading duty and absconding.

Cross, 56, an undischarged bankrupt at the time, was described in court yesterday by Judge Tony Briggs as an essential link in the chain.

Simon Reevell, in mitigation, said Cross’ role could have been carried out by anyone, but the judge told the defendant: “You are capable of being devious and slippery, and anything you had to say about your involvement must be approached with a degree of caution.”

The cigarettes were smuggled through Felixstowe in two pallets of hollowed-out wood and were taken to a depot in Peterlee, County Durham.

Jonathan Carroll, prosecuting, said the first pallet was moved north before customs officials noticed the hidden boxes in the second, and impounded the consignment.

A raid was then carried out on the Peterlee depot, where the transport manager and three accomplices were caught unloading the cigarettes.

The other four men were dealt with in court in 1999, but Cross, from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, fled the country when he was due to go on trial.

Mr Reevell said: “Between leaving and being arrested, he worked on contracts for the British Government in France, prior to which he had to be security vetted.

“Since then, he has come in and out of the country for weddings and family gatherings and the like.

“He was not in France hiding behind bushes. He was knocking on the door of the consulate offering to do work as a decorator.”

He was jailed for three-anda- half years.